MPs say Zimbabwe is not yet ready for electronic registration of Form 1 pupils

Hon. Maridadi, you say that 329 000 and I spoke about the 24 000 and 43% pass rate. You are saying, are those that did not pass going through to Form One? The answer is yes because the Grade Seven examination is non-terminal. It is does not satisfy you to say now you are ready to go into industry. It is just a litmus paper test to say, where are we in terms of your understanding in Maths, Arts, languages and so forth so that we can go through with you to Form One.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Machembere Primary School in Muzarabani. They had a zero percent pass rate in the last two years but this year, they have gone up to 41% from zero. There are five excellent teachers there who have made that transformation possible. So even in the remotest areas, performance and brilliance can be shown and those local kids will be going to Hove Secondary School.

Then Hon. Zvidzai, you made reference to the sciences and you said I celebrated the indigenous languages and the general paper which has not been performed well. Well, the Ministerial Statement which I have given carries with it some of the percentages in the other areas. So, when it is published it is a much longer statement …

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members, we asked for clarifications from the Minister. Now he is responding and we are busy talking. What are we doing Hon. Members? Also, respect your House and your Ministers. The Leader of the House is here and has been quiet ever since but you are busy talking and moving in and out of the House.

HON. DR. DOKORA: I will not be long, I am trying to summarise. The same Hon. Member who spoke about the sciences and STEM also made reference to the person to person relationships that are formed in the search for places, which I said in my statement that sometimes those person to person relationships created huge problems for my school heads. Ultimately, we lost some because the temptation is too huge. As to the 4 500 boys and girls that I made reference to, the boys left school to marry and the girls left school on account of pregnancy or to also get married. So, the way you treat that has to be differentiated. We have none formal education stream and in this year, the statistics show that 28 000 have participated in the none formal education sector. They can come back as young mothers and fathers/husbands and continue, not in the full-time programme but in the part-time educational programme. They are welcome.

The question, I think by Hon. Mlilo who feared that the local kids might fail to get places. I think they will not fail to get places. Everyone as I have said will get enrolled. The only question is, is it boarding or day school and therefore, on Monday if you have not found a boarding place, you go to the local school and register. We take everybody. It was in the media where the confusion arose as if everybody has to worry about the online registration. The mission schools, as I have indicated, we have held meetings with them as the responsible authorities.

Continued next page

(392 VIEWS)